Ihor Shurma: The growth of private money transfers from abroad is evidence of a demographic catastrophe and the brewing collapse of the economy

A substantial increase in the amount of private money transfers from abroad to Ukraine is an alarming figure, which, due to its incompetence, is ignored by the current Ukrainian authorities,” said Ihor Shurma, MP from the OPPOSITION BLOC.

According to him, private money transfers from abroad have been growing for the fourth year in a row. “Last year, Ukrainians transferred almost $ 11 billion to their families from abroad. This is a quarter more than in 2017. And the number of such operations continues to grow, the opposition member stated.

According to Ihor Shurma, if in the first quarter of 2015 money transfers came mainly from Russia, in the third quarter of 2018 Poland became the main donor. “Today, European countries are the main employers of the migrant workers - 62% of the money transfers are from them. There are also a lot of money transfers to the United States as well as the Czech Republic. This is the evidence of a fundamental demographic crisis, which can lead to irreversible consequences in the Ukrainian economy,” the oppositionist said.

“We have a huge problem with the birth rate – every year Ukrainians become less and less. We have a huge outflow of professional personnel. Homeless people, alcoholics and drug addicts do not go abroad. Talented qualified young professionals leave en masse, because in Ukraine it is extremely difficult to find a well-paid job. Another problem is social orphanhood, when one of the family members left for work, and one of the parents or relatives in general is raising children. This is how an appropriate attitude towards the family is formed. Young people are growing, thinking that the absence of a father or a mother is the norm,” the MP said.

Ihor Shurma recalled that only according to official statistics more than 3 million Ukrainians live abroad. Up to 9 million people leave for periodic earnings.

“The OPPOSITION BLOC team has repeatedly raised the issue of the catastrophic consequences of labor migration – but the authorities pretend that nothing is going on. We are ready to offer an effective concept of containing migration and supporting domestic producers. We have repeatedly explained how it is possible for several years to bring our specialists home and provide them with decent working conditions. But the authorities are not interested in it. All they can do is imposing additional tax on private money transfers. In the fall, after the parliamentary elections, we will have a chance to change everything. And we will definitely take advantage of this chance,” Ihor Shurma emphasized.